News

The Baltimore Blast defeated the Rockford Rampage, 11-8, Friday night at 1st Mariner Arena to clinch a spot in the 2010 postseason. The Blast improved to 11-7 with their sixth straight win, will finish no lower than second in the MISL and host the Philadelphia KiXX Saturday night in the team's last home game of the regular season.

Lucio Gonzaga scored the first of his three goals at the three minute mark of the first quarter to give the Blast an early 2-0 lead. He scored his second goal to start the second quarter and put the Blast on top, 4-0, before Geison Moura got the Rampage on the scoreboard and cut Baltimore's lead to 4-2. Rod Dyachenko extended the Blast's lead to 6-2 but newly acquired Leo Gibson scored the last two goals of the first half to tie the game at 6-6 just before halftime.

Pat Healey scored the only goal of the third quarter, putting the Blast back on top, 8-6, before Fred Degand tied the game again, this time at 8-8 early in the fourth quarter. Gonzaga scored his third goal, for his third hat trick of the season, to claim the 11-8 victory and the Blast's sixth straight win.

The six-game winning streak is the team’s longest win streak of the season (the previous winning streak lasted four games from November 21 to December 27).

The Blast announced last week that the team waived Logan Alexander and signed defender Fabio “Fabinho” Ribeiro. Fabinho made his Blast debut, recording four shots and three blocks. Dave Kern was in goal for the Blast while Sagu serves his two-game MISL suspension for two red cards this season. Kern stopped 12 of the 16 shots he faced and improved to 3-2 on the season, 11-3 in his career.

Saturday Night's Festivities:
It's also Fan Appreciation Night and we'll have the following prizes available in an enter-to-win contest:
- Family four packs to the Circus
- Family four packs to Shogun
- Family four packs to Mariners Football
- Gift Cards to Della Roses
- Gift Cards to Vaccaros
- Prize pack from Chipotle